San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Mayor Breed’s drug crisis meeting interrupted by boos, shouting, brick thrown in crowd
SAN FRANCISCO — A long-planned and unprecedented Board of Supervisors meeting was held at UN Plaza, the epicenter of San Francisco’s open-air drug market crisis.
It was meant to draw urgency to the deteriorating street conditions and worsening drug problem, but it was cut short soon after it began.
“I run into people day in and day out in the Tenderloin and they say ‘London, we would have never been able to get away with this stuff back in the day,’ and the fact is it’s time for a change,” said Mayor London Breed. “We want to get people help, but we will not continue to allow things to just occur as they have been.”
Breed spoke forcefully as she called for a tougher approach to dealing with brazen drug usage and dealing during the special off-site session.
It wasn’t hard for KPIX 5 cameras to find people opening using drugs nearby, in the shadow of City Hall.
“I think they should just give us housing. There’s 276,000 millionaires in San Francisco,” said one woman as she openly used drugs.
The outdoor meeting was called by Supervisor Aaron Peskin who said while the problem isn’t new, it’s become so visible that many San Franciscans don’t feel safe.
Within minutes, the meeting turned chaotic. Members of the public shouted down Peskin and the mayor.
Peskin had just begun to ask the mayor to set up an emergency operations center that would coordinate city agencies around shutting down open-air drug markets within 90 days. He said that the city does not a resources problem, it has a coordination problem.
“We have tried over and over again and what we are doing is not working, and in fact our local resources have increased,” said Breed. “But it has not dealt with the problem based on the magnitude of what we are experiencing.”
“I am putting everything on the line. I am doing this job without fear of losing it because at the end of the day when you know what it feels like to grow up in chaos you want nothing more than change,” she said.
The mayor also spoke passionately about the next generation growing up in the city.
“Why should someone else’s rights be put before their needs and their safety and what they deserve, too, in a place like San Francisco that claims to be so compassionate and liberal. What about them?” she said.
After it became clear to the mayor that she would not be able to answer questions thoroughly and completely, someone threw a brick in the crowd, injuring a teen, before being detained by police.
The meeting continued at City Hall.
“We must and we will hold people accountable when their behavior on the street is disruptive to residents, families and small businesses, enough is enough,” she said. “We are proposing changes to our state law and we will be enacting local programs to try and end this disruptive behavior.”
The mayor also noted that many people who need services are refusing them, which complicates the problem. There’s also a severe SFPD staffing shortage.
She urged the board to work together and approve her public safety budget and support programs and legislation to change our laws. She also asked supervisors to support arrests for those who are struggling with addiction, especially when they break the law, so that they can receive mandated treatment.
The PTO have revealed the wildcard picks for the women’s race at the San Francisco T100, which will be held next month in California.
The third leg of the brand new T100 Triathlon World Tour, San Francisco follows the Miami T100 and the Singapore T100 in the eight-race series this season.
With the contracted races already announced, the four additional wildcards look set to add an additional dimension to an exciting field of professional athletes.
Metzler looks to continue early season form
PTO World #40 Jeanni Metzler will make her first appearance of the season over the 100km distance in San Francisco, after the South African opened up 2024 with a fourth place finish at IRONMAN 70.3 St. George.
Grace Thek, who also finished fourth in her last outing at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside, has also been named as a wildcard, and the Australian will race her first PTO event since the European Open last May.
Making up the quartet are Estonian Olympian Kaidi Kivioja, who was tenth in Miami and ninth in Singapore, plus Jocelyn McCauley, who was 13th in Singapore and finished third at IRONMAN New Zealand earlier this season.
The full list of athletes racing is as follows:
- Ashleigh Gentle (AUS)
- Taylor Knibb (USA)
- Anny Haug (GER)
- Daniela Ryf (SUI)
- Laura Philipp (GER)
- Paula Findlay (CAN)
- Emma Pallant-Browne (GBR)
- Kat Matthews (GBR)
- India Lee (GBR)
- Chelsea Sodaro (USA)
- Imogen Simmonds (SUI)
- Lucy Byram (GBR)
- Amelia Watkinson (NZL)
- Marjolaine Pierre (FRA)
- Skye Moench (USA)
- Tamara Jewett (CAN)
- Kaidi Kivioja (EST)
- Jocelyn McCauley (USA)
- Grace Thek (AUS)
- Jeanni Metzler (RSA)
SAN FRANCISCO – A fire that damaged a hotel in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood, injured one person and closed nearby streets has been completely extinguished, a fire department spokesman said Sunday morning.
The fire at the Broadway Hotel at 2048 Polk St. was reported just after 6 a.m. and was swiftly knocked down, said San Francisco Fire Department spokesman Justin Schorr. Residents who were evacuated have returned and Broadway and Polk streets reopened around 8 a.m., he said.
One person sustained minor injuries in the blaze. The victim had not been transported to the hospital as of early Sunday morning.
After containing the blaze, firefighters remained on the scene until around 9 a.m. checking the building to ensure the blaze was completely out, Schorr said.
The spokesman said that after swiftly knocking a fire down, one of the challenges is ensuring that all of the embers in older buildings like the hotel are chased down and there is no lingering threat.
“A fire can double in size every 60 seconds,” the spokesman said. “It’s our goal to arrive quickly, knock down the fire and then do our investigation to determine if the fire has been completely extinguished.”
Often, firefighters will extinguish the main fire and for a considerable time afterwards will be opening ceilings and floors to ensure the fire is completely extinguished, Schorr said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, Schorr said.
San Francisco, CA
Civil rights activist Rev. Cecil Williams' legacy being preserved at SF Public Library
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — One box at time, the life of civil rights activist Reverend Cecil Williams and his work at GLIDE Memorial Church is being chronicled at the San Francisco Public Library main branch.
“We’re very excited to have this collection because it documents this major institution that really broke barriers, serving vulnerable people in the city,” said Tami Suzuki, Municipal Records archivist.
MORE: Rev. Cecil Williams, longtime leader of SF’s GLIDE Foundation, dies at 94
The archives is comprised of documentation detailing GLIDE’s service in the Tenderloin neighborhood and to LGBTQ+ communities, as well as Williams’ influence on everyone from world leaders to rock stars.
“It Includes sermons from Cecil Williams, includes a lot of their Sunday celebration programs, photos of a lot of events and visitors to their programs,” explained Suzuki.
“It’s like you’re walking into that congressional archives. I mean, you see telegrams from presidents. You see incredible dialog about incredible civil rights action,” said Karl Robillard, chief communications and public affairs officer at GLIDE. “Cecil’s history is San Francisco’s history. He kind of carried a message of the day that I think was so significant, not just to GLIDE, but to San Francisco and beyond.
MORE: SF’s GLIDE reopens indoor dining for free meal program in Tenderloin District
And GLIDE is making sure the Williams message continues to be carried.
“Recognizing that this exhibit is bigger than GLIDE, we can’t just house this on the fifth floor in a corner office in the very back of the building,” said Robillard. “It needs to be public. People need to see it and feel it and experience it.”
Sunday is the memorial service for Reverend Cecil Williams who died last month at the age of 94. The service will be held at GLIDE at 1 p.m. and doors open at noon.
If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live
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